Government to blame for nurses’ dispute

IT is not the fault of the nurses that there are difficulties in hospitals. It is the Government — any government — that has responsibility for delivering a working health service, not the nurses.

For every day the dispute lasts, and for every day services are curtailed, the Government is to blame for not sorting out the problem for which it has responsibility. It is unfair to have a hard-pressed mother debating with a member of a nurses’ union on the rights and wrongs of the situation, as happened on a recent radio programme.

That mother should be given the chance to challenge the real culprits, the Government, and in particular Health Minister Mary Harney.

This dispute is Ms Harney’s and her Government’s to resolve not by trying to give the nurses bad press, but by dealing with the situation that now exists.

In your coverage, put the focus on the Government’s responsibility, not the nurses’ determination or the desperation of mothers.

Seán Fallon

2 Killakee Walk

Firhouse

Dublin 24